"Respect for the past" bothers me a lot! I don't think there is that much respect because so much of our country's past is not taught in school. When I look at my genealogy I figure that 94% came to America for religious freedom. The first was Eleanore Newton who came to Plymouth Colony in 1621, and the last my 2nd great-grandfather William O'Bryan/Bryant who arrived in the late 1850s to Colorado, both came for religious freedom. My children were not allowed to talk about religious freedom or bring up the subject. The Colonial period was glossed over in a couple pages with no mention of the struggles on both sides to survive. The Revolution against Britain got a little time, but not much. Next was the Civil War with a few pages. A mention of WWI & WWII. Nothing about Korea or Vietnam. Society today is so Politically Correct that I can't stand it. Why did my 2nd great-grandfather change his surname from O'Bryan to Bryant? For survival the time being the end of the Potato Famine. Remember the saying, "Irish need not apply."

About 15 years ago on a local TV program some teenagers were asked about ethnicity and they commented that they looked to the day when there wouldn't be any, that we would all mesh together. This outlook saddens me! I live in the Rocky Mountains in the American West, and I dearly wish that I could experience neighborhood ethnicity that exists in the east. To me ethnicity is a good thing, it brings color to a bland existence! I don't look at what the differences are between ethnic groups, but what is common. But to someone from the east the cowboys, etc., of the west is exciting, different, and to me it is boring, the same ol' thing.

Got off track, parts of American society might have respect for the past, but in general I don't think so. Why does one Iraq veteran get all the help he needs for his wounds, but the guy sitting next to him with the same wounds gets nothing? Over 200 years ago Morgan's Riflemen saved the day at the Battle of Saratoga in New York, and one could trace their trail through New Jersey to the Brandywine in southern Pennsylvania because of the bloody footprints in the snow. Half of the regiment had no shoes because Congress wouldn't spend the money. Respect for the past?